From: "John D. Giorgis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: RE: Semicolon Saved San Francisco RE: BRin-L - are we average? (was RE: FederalMarraige[sic]Amendment)
Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2004 07:48:22 -0500
At 11:15 AM 2/20/2004 -0500 Jon Gabriel wrote:
>He and my friend
>had been together for several years and were living together for more than a
>year. As sometimes happens, since both were in their early 30's with no
>health problems, neither had thought to update their wills.
In all fairness, this is a very key point. Gay couples already do have significant legal power to update their power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and their wills to assign rights to their partners.
Accoding to the law, the current definition of 'fairness' doesn't include equality'. It can be much more difficult for gays to obtain the same legal protections that heterosexuals take for granted.
Your deceptively simple statement ignores certain realities of life. Remember that the majority of people in this country are not independently wealthy. They do not have the ability to lay out thousands in legal fees to protect the ones they love. For reasons outlined below, a gay will cannot be written using a $20 program with forms. Lawyers and high legal fees are required for both wills and durable powers of attorney when gay partnerships are involved. An option you didn't mention that many people are now opting for, a living trust, also costs a great deal of money to establish.
Yet, a simple document that costs less than $30 in most states practically guarantees some of these rights to heterosexual couples that gays will have to spend thousands to gain. A civil marriage certificate does not merely exist for moral purposes. It gives a wife or husband certain legal rights with regard to their partner's wishes and joint possessions.
Wills can be practically useless as they are open to contest. They also tend to have a clause in, or are typically interpreted by the courts as, leaving unassigned possessions to the genetic/biological family rather than the family a person has chosen. Recently, many gay couples have had to resort to making multiple subsequent wills -- each containing minor changes in order to prevent families from stepping in and contesting. When multiple subsequent wills exist, a family will need to contest each one. In the meantime, the partner gets nothing. And so we're completely clear about this, families usually do fight. When money is involved, homophobics come out of the woodwork.
Probate courts do not work in the partner's favor, either. Depending on the size of an estate, a probate lawyer can cost thousands and the court can cause years of delay.
Jon
Le Blog: http://zarq.livejournal.com
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